


With This Ring

by AJs Bunny (agentj)



Category: E.W. Hornung's Raffles series
Genre: Challenge Response, Gen, POV First Person, Victorian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-16
Updated: 2010-03-16
Packaged: 2017-10-08 00:46:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/70980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agentj/pseuds/AJs%20Bunny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On their first-year anniversary, Bunny discovers Raffles is engaged to be married.</p>
            </blockquote>





	With This Ring

**Author's Note:**

> for [](http://community.livejournal.com/crimeandcricket/profile)[**crimeandcricket**](http://community.livejournal.com/crimeandcricket/)'s Ides of March challenge; this story is inspired by an actual 79-year-old jewel thief whose life story is currently being made into a film

> ### Timeframe:
> 
> Albany, a year after their first crime together.

It was a brisk spring afternoon when Raffles unexpectedly called on me at my rooms in Mount Street. It wasn't completely unusual for Raffles to appear on my mat. Although his reasons for doing so over the half dozen times in the past year made me conclude that his primary objective for visiting me was to cajole me into one of his delinquencies. When confronting him upon the subject, he brusquely objected; "I had no intention of the kind, my dear Bunny. I only came to invite you to luncheon with me at the Savoy. If, however, you object—"

"Certainly not, Raffles!" I interjected, elated that the man who was in every way my superior had thought of me beyond things felonious. "I would be most honoured to accompany you to the Savoy."

Raffles regarded me silently for a moment with a sour expression, and I almost thought that he would take back his invitation. But his face softened, and his old mischievous smile returned in an instant. "You wouldn't object if I popped into a little shop for a meagre errand before we go, Bunny? Of course not, my dear chap. You're a good man."

With Raffles's compliments ringing in my ears, we walked arm in arm out past Berkeley Square and onward until we came to Bond Street where he led me down memory lane by pointing to our maiden crib.

"Shall we go in to see him, Bunny? Perhaps he will remember you. You wrote that letter to the editor about the theft and landowners's responsibilities, as I recall." Raffles winked and smiled in that way I knew so well. I for my part felt reluctant to voice my opinion, for I felt too vulnerable out on the open street, and thought I may betray our position.

There was a sparkle and gleam in his eye that took me back to the first when I was a desperate character at Raffles's mercy. Although others may see it as betrayal to society and all that is good when he brought me into his dastardly world of crime, I saw it as Raffles's way of showing me a kindness, to clear my debts and good name. I had already sunk as far as a man could go when Raffles had picked me up out of the gutter and placed me on the precipice.

As he had lead the way into my criminal life and deviant livelihood that first blustery March eve, he lead the way again, and I followed as if I were destined to be at his side.

Raffles greeted the jeweller with a smile and a nod. I had made the proprietor's dubious but brief acquaintance when Raffles insisted I return with him to the scene of the crime—as a respectable gentleman come to pay his bill, no less. "Still here amongst the riff raff, I see, dear Danby."

The shopkeeper approached us with a glad smile, unaware that he greeted the very men who had put his shop into debt. "Mr. Raffles! How could I leave with such a trustworthy customer like yourself?"

"Whenever one of my chaps is looking for just the right gift," said Raffles, "I tell them to go see Danby of Bond Street. There is no-one better! And that is why I seek you to-day, Danby. I desire a ring."

"Of course! Gentleman's rings are just down this way—"

"Oh, no," Raffles shook his curly head. "You misunderstand. I seek an _engagement_ ring."

Inwardly I gave a start at Raffles's declaration. My time at his elbow had taught me to keep from giving myself away, but I could not stop my blood from turning cold at the realisation.

So now the truth was out. The reason for Raffles's unexpected visit and taking me round to the most expensive diner in town was only to soften the blow that was to come. And came it did, like a thunderbolt. Raffles had always been rather close-mouthed about his disappearances from London, never divulging to me where he had gone or who he had seen. His dual nature became doubled again with yet another side.

He who I had begun to regard as my dearest and closest friend in all the world had not seen fit to include me in his most intimate society. And here I, the only man who knew the clandestine habits of England's best-known gentleman cricketer, had not known Raffles had even desired to wed.

"Congratulations!" spoke the jeweller with a broad smile, no doubt hearing the sound of sovereigns in his pocket as he tallied his commission on Raffles's future sales. "Let me show you the finest in the store. I just received these stunning South African diamonds and Colombian emeralds. They shall be just the thing for your bride-to-be."

The jeweller ushered us to a more prominent counter full of elaborate jewels. I cared little for the glitter and glam set out before me. I could only think of my purported friend, his deceptions, his secrets, and his lies. I listened with only half an ear as Raffles requested this or that to be seen by the afternoon light. I was caught off-guard when Raffles turned to me to say, "My friend's finger is about the same size. Try it on, Bunny?"

Suddenly my left hand became a model for Raffles's fiance's rings. A diamond the size of my knuckle, then a diamond and emerald-studded ring, and finally diamonds and rubies. At the last, several rings laid out upon the velvet cloth with Raffles's nose pushed down upon them and the jeweller's loupe against his eye.

Raffles stood back and clucked his tongue. "I simply cannot decide. Will she think of me as ostentatious if I get her a larger stone? Or a miser for buying the smaller? And are diamonds enough, or are rubies more appropriate over emeralds?"

I held my barbed tongue and simply shook my head.

"Quite right, Bunny. A decision such as this cannot be made hastily." Turning to the jeweller, Raffles said, "I think I shall have a good sleep on it, Danby. But if I am to wed, I must have myself a new insignia. Yes, why don't you show me your signet rings after all."

The proprietor carefully put back all the glittering gems and lead Raffles away to look at the gentlemen's rings, and I was left to pickle in my own brine. In my mind's eye, Raffles would offer his arm after his purchase, and I would let him escort me to the Savoy. I would take my fill of the finest luncheon the hotel could offer. After I had drained my port, I would light a cigar and tell Raffles exactly what I thought about his secretive nature and deceptive lies. Then I would rise and wish him the best of luck in his marriage, his cricket, and his future life, whatever that may be.

For I could not see myself in it any more. No, I would not say it was my moral imperative rearing its ugly head; I had been in the game enough in the first year of my villainous innings to know I was rotten to the core. What I could no longer abide was the scandalous way my partnership could so easily be picked up or discarded in Raffles's eyes. I was a mere convenience to him, an appendage, a dupe. How, after all this time, could I have been so blind as to my inevitable culpability in the grand scheme of Raffles?

"I'm so sorry we hadn't anything to suit your tastes to-day, Mr. Raffles," said the proprietor as Raffles turned to go.

We left the jeweller none the poorer, and he none the richer, but I bankrupt, for I had learned that I would be losing my one and only friend. By the time we reached the Savoy, I had resigned to my Fate. Raffles had promised only to relieve me from my debt and avoid scandal. That he had done and more. For my loyalty, I had earned a faithful if brief conjunction with my dear friend, and could continue to look forward to a moment of camaraderie on occasion in the future.

Across from me at our table, Raffles sat back after ordering salmon for the both of us and looked smug with self-satisfaction as he lit a Sullivan. "Now, Bunny, don't look so maudlin. How honest is it to tamper with a man's ball before bowling him out? I admit, perhaps it is not the fairest game, my good man, but what it does for one's nerve!"

I stared wide-eyed at the audacity of the man. "Well—I do hope your betrothed will know what she's in for!"

"What's that, Bunny?"

I raised my glass. "To you, A.J. You always managed to get yourself out of a scrape, one way or another."

Raffles smiled and picked up his own glass. "And to you, my dear Bunny. When things get tight, there's no man better."

As Raffles tipped the glass to his lips to drink to our first toast, I proposed another: "And congratulations to you, old chap. I may not know who the lucky lady may be, but I do wish you and her all the best." I gave a weak smile, for it felt like I was truly saying good-bye.

Raffles sputtered a moment as his champagne missed his gullet. "Lucky lady? What ever are you prattling on about?"

"The shopkeep—Danby. You told him—" I flustered over my words.

"I told him I was _looking_ for an engagement ring, my erroneous rabbit! Nothing more."

"Then—you mean—?" Befuddled, I could not voice what was true for fear that I may have got it all wrong all over again.

Raffles smiled in that way of his and put down his glass. Reaching out for me across the table, his hand clasped mine, warm and tender as the light in his eyes, and when he pulled his hand away, I could still feel the warm bite of metal against my flesh. Glancing down into my palm, I saw the emerald and diamond studded engagement ring.

I gasped, and Raffles's eyes laughed at me in return. "Surely you don't think I would enter into another partnership without first consulting my initial partner, Bunny?"

"Ah—how—how?" I stammered.

"While exchanging the rings from your finger, Bunny. I made sure he saw it there on your finger, and watched me remove it. He even saw me put it back on velvet—but it never was."

I leaned against the table and whispered, "You don't think he'll notice?"

Raffles blew rings across the table. "It will be weeks before he notices, and by then he will never suspect poor heart-broken Raffles. For I plan on visiting him with my sad story of a jilted lover, and will console myself with a purchase of a tie-pin.

"If you like it, keep it. You've more than earned your share of the bootle over the past year."

I felt sheepish as I pocketed the ring, and no more was said of my momentous blunder.

Perhaps it was foolish to keep the ring on a little chain round my neck, but somehow it has managed to survive my prison sentence, the war, and my infirmity. Although others may see it as the epitome of Raffles's criminality, I saw it as Raffles's way of showing me his heart.


End file.
